Oppsss, What Did I Do Wrong - Cracked Caliper

[Cooperman]

Good afternoon all,

I was just wondering if anyone could give me tips before I start my weekend tinkering.

Last weekend I was attempting to change my rear disks / pads on my 2001 yaris t-sport.

The night before, I cleaned and totally soaked the calipers in wd40.

When trying to loosen the 17mm bolts holding the 2parts together, we found them extremely tight.

The only tool that appeared to give us enough leverage was a breaker bar.

Even then they were super tight. Unfortunately I managed to crack the front

piece of the caliper. (the corner piece of the thread also snapped off!)

I had all the right tools, I didn't do anything aggressive to cause it to crack.

Question is, is it possible that it was over-tightened initially? Or did I do something wrong?

I have managed to source a complete replacement caliper from a breaker, and as you can imagine,

Im not overly keen on snapping these ones as well :)

Any advice peeps? Would taking the caliper to a garage to get them to

Impact drill the pieces apart be a better option this time?

Cheers for reading and thanks in advance

Tom

[Geoff Peace]

Good afternoon all,

I was just wondering if anyone could give me tips before I start my weekend tinkering.

Last weekend I was attempting to change my rear disks / pads on my 2001 yaris t-sport.

The night before, I cleaned and totally soaked the calipers in wd40.

When trying to loosen the 17mm bolts holding the 2parts together, we found them extremely tight.

The only tool that appeared to give us enough leverage was a breaker bar.

Even then they were super tight. Unfortunately I managed to crack the front

piece of the caliper. (the corner piece of the thread also snapped off!)

I had all the right tools, I didn't do anything aggressive to cause it to crack.

Question is, is it possible that it was over-tightened initially? Or did I do something wrong?

I have managed to source a complete replacement caliper from a breaker, and as you can imagine,

Im not overly keen on snapping these ones as well :)

Any advice peeps? Would taking the caliper to a garage to get them to

Impact drill the pieces apart be a better option this time?

Cheers for reading and thanks in advance

Tom

Firstly, WD 40 is a water dispersant, not a releasing agent. Plus Gas is a very good releasing agent. Diesel is another. Secondly, I am not quite sure on the rear callipers but the front ones certainly need a slim open ended spanner on the inside of the calliper to prevent the guide pin rotating. Probably the reason for the damage is that the parts were seized by corrosion between different metals, plus gas would most probably have prevented this.

Regards Geoff Peace

[Cooperman]

Good afternoon Geoff,

Thanks so much for the reply and your opinion.

I think I have managed to find a shop locally that

sells plus gas, I'm going to nip in after work and grab some :)

Cheers once again

Tom

[Geoff Peace]

Good afternoon Geoff,

Thanks so much for the reply and your opinion.

I think I have managed to find a shop locally that

sells plus gas, I'm going to nip in after work and grab some :)

Cheers once again

Tom

Try to buy the tin of liquid plus gas rather than the aerosol. Liquid is pure plus gas. the aerosol seems to contain a great deal of propellant and little plus gas. Sadly these days everyone seems to prefer the aerosol. Liquid is far more effective.

Regards Geoff Peace.